The Ghana Central Governance Project (GCGP) was part of the overall
public sector reform but its focus was on the executive decision-making
processes designed to enable Ghana to re-capture its lost glory of
running one of the most efficient and vibrant civil services in the
world. The project was aimed at providing mechanisms for ensuring
optimal delivery of the executive president's priorities,
formalizing the decision-making process, where the precious time of the
president and ministers is focused on strategic issues, such as quality
policy options and analyses; performance reporting by ministries;
improved support at both political and administrative levels by central
management agencies (CMAs); and stronger policy coordination between the
Office of the President, CMAs and ministries, departments and agencies
(MDAs).

This paper commences by providing a brief overview of the reforms
undertaken over the years prior to the establishment of the GCGP, and by
explaining what policy is and describing the Ghana Central Government
Project. Next, the development of the project's phases and expected
benefits are addressed. This is followed by highlights of the
project's activities and achievements. Finally the lessons learnt
and conclusions are presented.

Public sector reforms and background to the GCGP

Ghana has undertaken a number of key public sector reform
initiatives since the period of independence, aimed at improving skills
and output within the civil or other related sectors. The key reform
initiatives have included the following:

--The Mills Odoi Commission to review structures and salaries to
support the development of the country (1965);

--The Okoh Commission which was tasked with making recommendations
for dynamism, social change and economic development (1974);

--The National Institutional Renewal Programme, which was to reform
the entire public sector and the civil service through the Civil Service
Performance Improvement Programme (CSPIP) 1995.

All of these reforms, as well as other sector-specific programs,
such as Public Finance Management, and Budget and Expenditure Management
System, were aimed at developing the critical intellectual and technical
capital to deliver the capacity to support development. Over the years,
however, the public sector suffered as a result of high staff turnover,
a declining economy and frequent interruptions in the democratic
process. The public sector bore the brunt of the effects, leading to
cutbacks which ultimately affected the overall output and technical
capability of the civil service.

By the year 2001, the new administration, which had taken over the
reins of government on the advice of the Government of Canada, decided
to focus on policy development, management and implementation to achieve
results. It was recognized that the development and effective
implementation of the right polices were critical to national
development and the achievement of the government's priorities.

Consequently, the discussions focused on strengthening the
policymaking and decision-making systems as a basis for development. In
implementing this project, the Office of the President, which is
normally not a focal point in such reforms, was a key beneficiary,
including the Cabinet Secretariat and key central management agencies.

This project differed from other donor-supported reform initiatives
which, as demonstrated above, tended to centre on organizational
structures, payroll reform, human resource and administrative competence
relevant to specific functions (Aryee 2001). Given that effective
governments the world over were based on the development and
implementation of the right policies, this project emphasized policy.

Furthermore, the project was consultative in a number of ways.
There was discussion between the Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA) and the Government of Ghana (GoG) to make the process not
only consultative but also relevant to the needs of Ghana and its
cultural setting. Additionally, there was discussion with the key
beneficiary institutions: the chief directors and the Presidency's
Policy Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (PCMEU). The
discussions established key milestones and implementation methodologies,
and considered issues of major public interest. More importantly, the
discussions at the steering committee level determined which best
practice systems could be used as benchmarks. Given that Canada is a
developed country and has so much to share in terms of experiences, it
was selected as one of the best practice countries for study.

Canada, as a Commonwealth country, has some traditions in common
with Ghana, which made its selection most appropriate. That
notwithstanding, other best practice countries were added to the mix,
including the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America
(USA). A full-scale conference with representatives from Ghana, Canada,
the UK and USA permitted extensive deliberations over a three-day period
to define clearly the best practices for inclusion in the project.
Amongst the stakeholders invited were public-sector institutions, think
tanks, civil society/ research and advocacy/non-governmental
organizations, academic institutions, private sector organizations and
development partners.

Description of the Ghana central governance project

GCGP was a bilateral project between the GoG and the Government of
Canada. Funded by CIDA, the main goal of the project was to enhance the
government's policy management processes, which would strengthen
the decision-making process in the Office of the President, the Cabinet
Secretariat and the MDAs.

Structured under three main components, the project was tasked
with:

--Improving the decision-making policy capacity of the executive
and selected ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs);

--Assisting in the development and support of a human resource
strategy for policy analysts; and

--Providing support for a management information system (MIS) to
support the policy management and decision making system.

Gender analysis and strategies cut across all components.

The project was fortunate to have committed GoG leadership at the
highest political level and manifested in the day-to-day stewardship of
implementation. A project management committee (PMC) was the central
body around which the project evolved, and assumed overall
responsibilities for the implementation of the project. The chair of the
PMC alternated between the chief of staff (who was also the minister of
presidential affairs) and the director of international development at
the Canadian High Commission. The PMC also relied heavily on the
involvement of the secretary to the cabinet and head of the civil
service as well as Canadian and Ghanaian project directors. The PMC was
supported by a project office headed by a coordinator who worked with
all stakeholders to ensure that the project ran smoothly and
continuously. During the first four years of implementation, the project
shared management responsibility between the Office of the President and
the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC).

Partners and beneficiaries for the first phase of the project
included agencies with oversight responsibilities such as the Office of
the President, Cabinet Secretariat, Office of the Head of Civil Service,
National Development Planning Commission, ministries with cross-cutting
functions such as finance and economic planning, local government and
rural development, women and children's affairs and big-spending
ministries such as food and agriculture, education and health. When the
work commenced, however, all ministries were invited to participate in
the policy seminars, so as to share equally in the benefits to be
derived from the laudable ideas and knowledge the project had to offer
the MDAs.

The project's activities were initially coordinated through
three work teams, namely policy, human resource and management
information system (MIS). Members of the work teams were selected from
the PCMEU at the Office of the President, Cabinet Secretariat, Office of
the Head of Civil Service and all the selected MDAs. The work teams
designed and contributed to the development of products of the project,
including a cabinet memoranda procedures manual; performance management
for chiefdirectors and directors of the various ministries; detailed job
descriptions for policy analysts and monitoring and evaluation
specialists of the PCMEU at the Office of the President and at the
Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Units of the ministries;
base-line data on GoG human resources training; a draft ministers'
handbook and transition-planning guide for change of administrations.
The teams also developed presentations on Ghana's current executive
decision-making processes. The MIS work team contributed to the
successful implementation of MIS at the Office of the President and the
ministries involved in the first phase of the project.

The work teams collaborated with the project to build policy
capacity in the MDAs through an applied competency training program, and
developed a document entitled "A Framework for Ghana's Policy
Management and Decision Making System." In general, the project
sought to improve the decision--making policy capacity of the executive
and the selected MDAs, to assist in developing and supporting the
implementation of a human resource strategy for policy analysts, and
provide support for a management information system to facilitate the
policy management and decision-making process. The human resource and
MIS work teams successfully achieved their mandates, and the policy work
team worked assiduously to deepen the use of the policy tools.
Comprehensive standard samples of a variety of Cabinet memoranda were
developed to serve as templates for policy analysts in the civil
service.

Phases of the project

Phase One of the project came to an end after a five-year
implementation period (see Table 1), but the Canadian government through
CIDA funded a transition phase for a further eighteen months.

The purpose of the transition phase was to enable the Government of
Ghana to strengthen the foundations of the executive decision-making
system through the application of products, procedures and processes
developed in the GCGP and the building of management capacity to
implement reform.

Four sets of activities were earmarked:

1. Activities supporting the political engagement for an orderly
transition of government, and the civil service as it prepared for a
transition of government. This was based on the finding that reforms in
the public sector are usually successful when they receive the support
of both politicians and bureaucrats (Reschenthaler and Thompson 1998;
Gruening

2001; Caiden and Sundaram 2004; Keen et al 2005; Antwi et al 2008).

2. Activities supporting capacity to apply executive
decision-making, including implementation of the Cabinet Memorandum
Manual with appropriate training and coaching.

3. Activities supporting application of the management information
system, and the capacity to test and refine the cabinet decision
tracking system in the Office of the President.

4. Activities promoting gender equality in the decision-making
system, supporting the application of gender impact analysis and the use
of the gender assessment tool in the Cabinet Memorandum Manual.

Benefits of the project

Overall benefits that accrued to the government and people of Ghana
are as follows: a deepening of good governance and an enhanced policy
management and coordination process at the executive level, and between
the CMAs, Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorates
(PPMEDs), Research Statistics Information Management Directorates
(RSIMDs) and Gender Desk Officers of the MDAs. With an effective and
well-defined cabinet approval process, there is improved coordination
among direct beneficiaries.

The project was brought to a successful completion at the end of
2009.

Reach and institutionalization of the project

The project has successfully expanded the community of interest and
participation, which augurs well for the institutionalization of
elements of the reforms. For example,

--more political executives have lent support to the project;

--the Cabinet Secretariat has accepted the challenge to change its
processes and procedures;

--collaboration with the head of the civil service has ensured that
the project dovetails with future strategic directions of the civil
service;

--the project has garnered the interest and support of several
chief directors who are the permanent executives in the GoG; they
participated in almost all of the activities of the project, study
tours, workshops, seminars, and helped in the development of the
framework. They were also involved in the consultations on the new job
descriptions for policy groups; and

--permanent civil service groups that have been affected by the
project include the work teams and most of the participants at various
meetings and workshops.

Highlights of project activities and achievements

A framework for Ghana's policy management

A key achievement was the development of the document entitled,
"A Framework for Ghana's Policy Management and Decision Making
System." The need for the framework was identified by the Office of
the President from the outset as a required blueprint for a coherent,
policy management and decision-making system, from which other
incremental process improvements could be derived or anchored. The
framework was meant to accelerate efficiency in Ghana's policy
management and accountability process, and ultimately, its governance.

The process of developing this major document also produced other
results.

--Capacity building occurred through the inclusive process of
planning the workshop and presentations, and in developing the
recommended framework. Ghanaians did it by themselves.

--Interaction of different policy groups around fundamental issues
occurred. This was the first of its kind. As a community, these groups
have a stake in the recommendations for reforms.

--The workshop product, the recommended framework, was a
significant outcome that touched on the core governance of the country.

Cabinet Memorandum Manual (CMM) and impact assessment guidelines

One of the significant successes of the GCGP was the adoption by
cabinet of the CMM as the guide for the development of cabinet memoranda
and government policy. This was a key product from the framework
document. Prior to the institutionalization of the CMM, there were huge
differences in the quality of memoranda submitted to cabinet for its
consideration. Ministries that had developed policy capacity and
consequently strong PPMEs usually submitted good cabinet memoranda
whereas the submissions of ministries without the requisite policy human
resources were generally sub-standard. To address these inconsistencies
in the system, the development of a CMM was considered as an important
output or deliverable of the policy process component of the GCGP.

This manual sets out detailed standards and requirements for
preparing documents for consideration by cabinet and cabinet committees.
It outlines the process for submitting and reviewing proposals from
MDAs. The manual was developed by the Office of the President with
contributions from a working group comprising selected CMAs and MDAs.
The final product was thoroughly reviewed by the Cabinet Secretariat.

This manual provides guidelines for content and context development
of a cabinet memorandum. It discusses linkages required for the
preparation of a robust memorandum. It also highlights the issues that
need to be taken into account in assessing the economic, social,
technological, cultural and demographic impacts of the policy.
Furthermore, the financial implications, gender analysis implications
and communications strategies for disseminating the policy have to be
clearly articulated. The manual includes a section on security measures
for cabinet documents.

In the past, the government had experienced leaks of confidential
cabinet memoranda, to the embarrassment of both political leaders and
civil servants. Consequently, the Cabinet Secretariat made security
measures for cabinet records one of the key areas that the project
needed to address. Two cabinet secretaries and a number of staff from
the Cabinet Secretariat had the opportunity to travel to Canada to study
the security system used by the Privy Council Office in the Canadian
prime minister's office. The use of management information systems
in managing workflow and communication, as well as tracking the
transmission of cabinet memoranda were studied and initial concepts and
plans were developed to suit Ghana's context. Subsequently,
pertinent staff from Canada's Cabinet Secretariat visited Ghana to
assist with the implementation of the plan, and shared their experiences
on running a cabinet secretariat. This and other initiatives implemented
by Ghana's Cabinet Secretariat have resulted in improved security
measures that have virtually eradicated the incidences of cabinet
memoranda leaks. Software for the management of cabinet memoranda and
the decision-making process has been developed for the Cabinet
Secretariat.

A draft "handbook for ministers"

The project also produced a draft "handbook for
ministers." In advanced jurisdictions, there are guidelines for
ministers and leading politicians on job descriptions, codes of conduct
and the nature and scope of their work as well as the expectations of
the public regarding their conduct while in public office. The handbook
sets out to establish the general objects of a ministerial appointment,
responsibilities of a minister, issues relating to good governance,
transparency and accountability. Relationships with colleague ministers
and with civil servants are also highlighted. Critical success factors,
including code of conduct for a ministerial portfolio, are explained.
These include the need to be innovative and at the same time circumspect
in the office of the minister where portfolios cover a wide range of
sectors of the economy (e.g., economic/financial, social, infrastructure
and governance). In the same vein, because there is a need for a right
balance between technical and general management skills in order to
achieve high levels of success, the minister ought to be able to conduct
the appropriate analysis in order to strike the balance. The use of
special advisors, special assistants and the ability to create the right
conditions and context within which the career civil servants can work
smoothly with political appointees is a key to success in the
minister's office.

Training and capacity building in policy development in the civil
service

Government work teams coordinated all of the implementation
activities in each of the project's components, thereby building
and improving on functional skills.

--The human resource work team developed job descriptions and a
baseline data report on the government's human resources and
training.

--The policy work team developed a descriptive report of the
current policy and decision-making system.

--The MIS work team played a key role in the development of
leading-edge information management systems for Ghana, e.g., a knowledge
management system and a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure at the Office
of the President.

The Office of Head of Civil Service (OHCS) collaborated with the
project to ensure adequate training of civil servants for efficient and
effective job performance in the execution of programs to meet the
development aspiration of Ghanaians, particularly the gender equality
analyses and strategies that cut across all components of the
project's programs. The University of Ghana Business School (UGBS)
worked closely with the human resource work team to develop a
participatory and practical training course with emphasis on case
studies, group discussions and individual simulation exercises.

OHCS, in collaboration with the UGBS and in support of the project,
also developed a comprehensive set of training modules:

--Module one: Policy development and analysis;

--Module two: Context and framework of policy; and

--Module three: Policy implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

The curriculum provides core knowledge in policy making from the
economic, social and political perspectives and the cultural realities,
and offers civil servants a better understanding of the new framework
for decision making, in order to appreciate the available policy
instruments and methods for effective monitoring and implementation of
policy.

One hundred and forty-four and fifty-four civil servants were
successfully trained in module one and module three, respectively. The
project was geared towards developing well-trained staff for efficient
and effective execution of government programs, which would also be
responsive to the development aspirations of Ghanaians.

Mainstreaming gender issues into governance

Underlying the three components--policy process, human resource
development and utilization of MIS to facilitate the policy management
and decision-making process--was a need to ensure that gender analysis
would cut across all of the issues addressed. Working very closely with
a gender specialist, the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs
and the key ministries involved in the first phase of the project
established gender desks. To lead by example, the project's three
work groups were constituted with gender balance in mind. Gender balance
was also an important consideration in the selection of civil service
personnel for practitioner-to-practitioner training and applied
competency programs. Overall, about forty per cent of the personnel
trained were females. In hiring personnel for the policy class of the
civil service, the OHCS worked assiduously to ensure that females were
fairly represented. The project also availed itself to government
agencies that required specific assistance in the formulation and
implementation of gender-sensitive policies. In this regard, the project
worked with the Ministry of Trade and Industry to determine how best to
incorporate gender issues in the formulation and implementation of its
policies. A training workshop on gender analysis and mainstreaming into
the National Trade Policy was organized for thirty-five participants,
and an "Action Plan" developed. In all, about eighty civil
servants benefited from training workshops on gender analysis and
mainstreaming in cabinet memorandum and policy development. The
selection procedure for the training of specialists ensured that
officers working on various programs attended such training. Within
their offices, however, other officials with the technical skills and
basic competencies were also selected, in order to ensure gender
balance. The key issue for selection was competence. Indeed, concerns
over a trade off with merit were unfounded since there were almost
always competent women who were willing to accept new challenges. Some
means of evaluating the progress of the gender-neutral policy after the
training workshops included how well-grounded the new women's
ministry would become over the years; the rise of women into the top
echelons of the civil service; and the consolidation of gender desks
established in the ministries.

Development partners (DPs)

A commitment to consult and align the GCGP with other donor
governance initiatives in Ghana was successfully met. The project
consulted with all the major DPs during the inception phase, and
continued to provide them with project updates. Visits were made to
DANIDA, the World Bank, DfID and USAID. In developing the framework, the
project consulted with the DPs and secured their cooperation. DPs were
represented at various fora organized by the Canadian High Commission to
discuss the project.

Job descriptions for policy units: PCMEU, PPMEDs

As part of the human resource component of the project, job
descriptions were developed for policy advisors, policy analysts as well
as monitoring and evaluation specialists to facilitate hiring
specialists for, and also to give direction to, the work of the PCMEU at
the Office of the President.

In the same vein, job descriptions were developed for the policy
analysts of the Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorates
(PPMEDs) of the ministries. Because they work so closely with the head
of the civil service, the PPMEDs needed to be reinvigorated and restored
to the distinctive role they used to play in the civil service in its
early days. These job descriptions and other stringent recruitment
processes are currently being used to attract bright and promising
recruits to a strong policy class in the civil service.

The civil service has not only embarked on a recruitment drive to
attract talented personnel, but it has also adopted an internal transfer
system that matches skills to positions occupied. Efforts have also been
made to ensure that appropriate staff within the policy class are
retained as a way of preserving institutional memory and building the
capacity of new entrants. Various training programs have been instituted
to ensure the rapid development of staff within the policy class.

Performance management system for chief directors and directors

One notable success of the GCGP has been the development of a
performance management system for the civil service. The OHCS requested
the project to develop a system that enables it to measure, monitor and
evaluate objectively the performance of the chief directors and
directors of the ministries. OHCS is currently building on this to
implement a comprehensive performance management system in the civil
service.

Established mandates, roles, functions and improved coordination
among policy management bodies and direct beneficiaries were largely
achieved through the work teams. The chief directors and members of the
work teams collaborated for the attainment of the project objectives. In
sum, the target of the project was to put things in their proper place
within the context of public administration.

Monitoring and evaluation guidelines for the PCMEU

Under the auspices of the project, the PCMEU, in collaboration with
the Office of the Head of the Civil Service (OHCS), National Development
Planning Commission (NDPC), Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning
(MFEP), Ministry of Local Government & Rural Development (MLGRD) and
Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) developed templates and guidelines for
quarterly reporting to the Office of the President for the purposes of
monitoring and evaluating government policies and programs. The robust
utilization of the tools and the completed forms, with additional
activities used to cross check the veracity of the information submitted
(e.g., field trips) and the feedback process (provided by the PCMEU to
ministers, chief directors and heads of departments and agencies) made
the exercise of monitoring and evaluation highly useful to the various
ministries with which the PCMEU worked. To the project's credit,
countries such as Gambia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone,
Tanzania and Uganda have visited Ghana and communicated with the project
director and project team to learn lessons from the policy development,
monitoring and evaluation experiences of their Ghanaian counterparts.

At the time that monitoring and evaluation guidelines were
developed, there were several reporting matrices to meet the needs of
various funding agencies. The project brought all of these stakeholders
around the table to agree on a harmonized set of monitoring and
evaluation guidelines that met the needs of the various actors and
sponsors of activities within government.

Towards vibrant policy development

Politicians make policies, and good policies make good politics.
However, politicians do not implement the policies. They depend on civil
servants to implement them. The GCGP organized a series of seminars for
over 200 mid- to top-level civil servants from the Office of the
President, Cabinet Secretariat, PCMEU, CMAs, PPMEDs, RSIMDs (including
chief directors and gender desk officers) from all of the MDAs on
cabinet decision-making process, policy development and analysis, policy
options development, policy reviews, presentations and briefings on what
an effective and well-defined cabinet approval process is.

These were practitioner-to-practitioner, interactive seminars in
which Canadian practitioners (and, in some cases, practitioners from the
United States and United Kingdom) were invited to share ideas and
experiences from their countries and then to compare them with the
Ghanaian system. In a presentation, one of the Canadian practitioners
stated that "the role of a Civil Servant is to be fearless in
giving advice based on a well-developed analysis." The expectation
is that policy coordination amongst the various decision-making bodies;
i.e., the Office of the President, Cabinet Secretariat, National
Development Planning Commission and PPMEDs in the MDAs, would
consolidate the gains made so far.

Policy network forum

As part of the process of consolidating and strengthening policy
development in the civil service, a policy network forum comprising all
policy-related institutions in the country and policy analysts in the
civil service is being established. The purpose of the forum is to
provide an opportunity for the exchange of information on policy issues
and to consolidate contacts and relationships between government
officials in charge of policy across the various MDAs. It will also
provide an opportunity for past and present participants of various
training programs to discuss topical policy issues in a multi-sectoral
manner for policy development in Ghana.

Learning from best practices through study tours

To gain first-hand information from their Canadian counterparts on
modern governance, study tours were organized for senior officials from
the Office of the President and Cabinet Secretariat, and chief directors
who are involved in policy development. A team of IT specialists working
on MIS also acquainted themselves with their counterparts and learnt the
new methods of document and information management. Participants visited
Canadian institutions such as the Prime Minister's Office, Cabinet
Secretariat, Privy Council Office and Status of Women Canada (SWC).
During the visit to the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada, chief
directors from the MDAs were highly impressed with functions of the
government machinery, especially the work of the cabinet sub-committee
system. In Canada, these sub-committees have in-depth discussions on
cabinet memoranda and resolve outstanding issues. This practice makes it
possible for cabinet to meet for two hours to concentrate on strategic
priority issues. The tours have helped participants to update their
knowledge and share experiences on best practices, some of which have
been implemented in Ghana's effort to translate the lessons learnt
into good governance and the consolidation of democracy.

Management information system

To support vibrant policy development in government, a
state-of-the-art IT infrastructure has been established in the Office of
the President. The original idea was to establish connectivity between
the Office of the President and the MDAs for collaboration and sharing
of information through the Hummingbird suite. A secure networking and
messaging infrastructure was installed at the Office of the President.

Computers and supporting hardware were distributed within the
Office of the President, the Cabinet Secretariat and the selected MDAs
to transmit and receive messages to and from the ministries that are
part of the project in order to allow for coordination, collaboration
and sharing of information linking the beneficiaries.

Training in basic IT skills, email usage, Internet skills and
Microsoft Office productivity tools (Word, Excel and Outlook) was
provided for selected staff from all registries at the Office of the
President. In addition, Internet connectivity among the selected MDAs
and the Office of the President was established. The system has security
features to ensure that the infrastructure and resources are used as
expected, and that neither national security nor organizational
confidentiality is compromised.

A key output of the project has been the development of the Castle
Portal. This portal has structured information on various sections of
the Office of the President and has appropriate linkages to other
agencies where required to access and display the information
effectively for users at the Office of the President for the purpose of
monitoring and evaluating the performance of the President's
priorities.

Transition planning guide

As part of the GCGP, a comprehensive set of guidelines was
developed for transition planning in Ghana. For the first time in the
country's history, a formalized system was created to indicate what
was required of both the political and bureaucratic leadership during a
change of government. Even if the change involves one political party
succeeding itself, it is expected that a formal transitional process
will take place in order to ensure the retention of institutional memory
and a smooth transfer of power.

The transition planning guide was developed on a step-by-step
basis. Issues relating to activities, timing and responsibilities of the
outgoing and incoming president as well as the bureaucracy (mainly
Cabinet Secretariat and Civil Service) are clearly spelt out. To make
the work highly practical, user-friendly worksheets were developed to
facilitate the implementation of the transition plan. Prior to the
finalization of the plan, cabinet approved the use of the planning
guide. Additionally, the committee of chief directors (permanent heads
of all the ministries) participated in numerous discussions to provide
comments and inputs that were used to improve draft versions of the
transition guide. On the political side, the chief of staff chaired a
cabinet committee that was established by the president to study the
draft transition guide and make recommendations to cabinet for its
approval. On the part of the bureaucracy, the cabinet secretary, head of
the civil service and project director (also head of the PCMEU) worked
closely with the governance advisor and project coordinator to generate
ideas and concept papers upon which the work was founded.

It is expected that the judicious use of the transition planning
guide will facilitate the smooth transition of power from one
administration to another. Since this is the first time such an approach
to power change will take place, critical success factors will be noted,
challenges will be catalogued and the lessons learnt will come in handy
to improve the transition guide and make it even more useful during
subsequent transition processes.

Challenges of the project

The achievements of the project notwithstanding, there were a
number of challenges. In some instances, discussions, consultation and
relationship building were required to overcome the difficulties.

Support for the project

At the outset of the project, six major ministries and the Office
of the President were selected for the pilot phase. The benefits of the
project were then to be extended across all MDAs. Although some of the
ministries felt that they were critical to the policy process and thus
should have been included at the outset, this was not possible at the
pilot stage, owing to resource constraints. Through discussions and
relationship building, a compromise arrangement was reached that made it
possible for all ministries to benefit from the
practitioner-to-practitioner training programs that were offered by the
project. By opening up the policy training program to cover all of the
ministries, the project gained widespread support from the civil
servants.

Skills and set-up of PPMEDs

At the outset, the project identified that not all MDAs had
well-functioning policy planning, monitoring and evaluation directorates
(PPMEDs). Apart from the key ministries of health, education,
agriculture, finance and

economic planning, and women and children's affairs, several
ministries did not have well-established PPMEDs. In many instances,
either there were not enough staff to do the work or the staff of the
directorate was not of the quality required to do the work. This was a
major issue that the project had to grapple with initially. Liaising
with the OHCS for staff to be sent to the major PPMEDs to move the
project forward was not always easy. The perception that the PPMED was
the Siberia within the service was persistent within some ministries at
the time of the implementation of the project. This perception was
reinforced by the fact that nothing happened in such directorates and
the staff were therefore technically redundant.

Attitude of some key organizations who felt that their mandate was
being usurped

The project did not receive initial support for its work because
some MDAs felt that their mandate was being usurped by the project.
Traditionally, the provision of advice to the president and the issuance
of policy directives were within the purview of certain specific
organizations in the public sector. However, the project sought to build
a more collaborative approach to policy development and support key
organizations to provide information and agree prior to submission of
policy to cabinet, which was hitherto not the case. This
notwithstanding, these organizations were initially frosty in their
support until the project gained traction and assured them of their
continued existence.

Lack of ministerial support

Policy making across government is dependent on the support that
the process receives along the entire policy-making chain. Critical to
this is the minister of state in Ghana, who submits policies to cabinet
for approval and acceptance, as well as where necessary, implements the
policy. The control of the process by the minister made him or her
powerful. Consequently, there were initial difficulties in getting the
minister of state to be supportive of the process. The fact that the
Cabinet Secretariat and the cabinet secretary were involved, as well as
the head of the PCMEU, helped to encourage overall support.

The need to build relationships

The success of the project was dependent on effective
relationship-building throughout the project. The inclusion of chief
directors, the head of the civil service, the secretary to cabinet and
various interest groups throughout the project ensured that the targets
were met.

Initial absence of females

During the implementation of the project, it was recognized that
not many females were involved in the process, particularly at the chief
director level. Consequently, necessary additions were made to bring on
board a key female chief director from the Ministry of Tourism (a
ministry not initially part of the project) to ensure active involvement
of women. Naturally, this led to a clamour for additional inclusions
prior to extending the project to all the MDAs. It is noteworthy that
the female director from the Ministry of Tourism benefited from the
capacity development components of the project and was selected by the
managers of the project to represent the Government of Ghana and make
presentations at various conferences dedicated to public sector
management. She excelled in her job and the Ministry of Tourism was
consistently amongst the first to meet the reporting requirements of the
presidency during her tenure as the chief bureaucrat of the ministry.
Her meteoric rise to the highest position in the public
service--chairperson of the Public Services Commission (the first ever
woman to occupy this post)--is therefore not surprising.

Rival programs supported by other development partners

Based on the success of the GCGP, there were attempts to support
similar initiatives in critical areas of government by some of the donor
agencies, principally to gain favour and access to the centre which was
considered important to their work in the country. The project took note
of all these issues and successfully worked with such projects funded by
other organizations to ensure that benefits accruing to the country were
deepened.

Lessons learned

Client commitment

The most important factors in a central governance project are the
commitment, enthusiasm and leadership of the government. The project in
Ghana was fortunate to have committed leadership at the highest
political level, which was manifested in the day-to-day stewardship of
implementation. This is exemplified by the adoption of the Cabinet
Memorandum and Procedures Manual and the continued interest shown by the
Cabinet Secretariat in particular for additional training in matters
relative to the project. The staff of the various ministries who have
received training have shown a willingness to work in many instances
beyond normal hours. Some of them have taken additional courses in
policy.

Partnership

The project enjoyed a cordial working relationship with CIDA and
its staff, both locally and in Canada. CIDA officials were actively
engaged in making sure that the project succeeded. The project's
management responsibilities were initially shared between the Institute
of Public Administration of Canada and the Office of the President. The
Government of Ghana provided the time and talents of senior staff in the
Presidency, Cabinet Secretariat, OHCS and the selected MDAs. In
addition, the chief of staff, secretary to cabinet and the head of the
civil service were actively involved in the project through the project
management committee. Government partnership was crucial in ensuring
client ownership of the project and the achievement of its objectives.
There has been a willingness among public officers across the various
MDAs to collaborate more in order to develop public policies.

Respectful relationships

Mutual respect and trust are very important. The project worked
hard to build this respect and trust among the partners, which shared
the same goal of making this project a success. Both parties have come
to trust the other to make good suggestions and thus are flexible to
allow for changes and shifts in the work plans and approaches to
implementation. The degree of consultation among partners of equal rank
across ministries, especially in the development of cabinet memoranda
and policy matters, has been remarkable. Issues are now discussed and
not imposed, as was the case previously.

Good listening

Ability to listen to what the client is saying is important. From
the start of the project, the ability to appreciate and respect the
directions of the partners made all the difference. The inception phase
was extremely useful in clarifying the wishes of the government. The
project responded to modifications requested by the partners,
modifications that made huge impacts in terms of paving the way for
achieving project objectives. The project succeeded in avoiding the
arrogance of assuming that it had all the expertise and answers.

Flexibility

Flexibility to refocus and redesign various approaches exists and
is necessary. For example, the development of a framework for
Ghana's policy management and decision-making system was a result
of a workshop which provided a venue for wider participation and
comparative assessments of different governance models from Canada, the
UK and USA. TheGovernment of Ghana identified the need for the framework
during this inception workshop.

Creative approaches

There is not just a single way to do things. Insistence that one
approach fits all could not work in this project. The project learned to
approach delivery in different ways, and experience has shown that those
variations made the project stronger, rather than weaker. The Ghanaian
civil service has been "assessed to death," and numerous
reports have been produced by DPs. The earlier scepticism some had about
this project was due in part to the fact that many projects never
delivered tangibles, but spent huge sums of money on studies and on what
the funding organisations perceived to be important (not what the people
considered essential). The project learned very quickly to use creative
approaches to deliver on the tangibles.

Conclusions

No doubt the GCGP has had a tremendous impact on the policy process
in Ghana. While this is not the first attempt at reform, the processes
for ensuring a successful implementation were different.

Techniques for ensuring public-sector reform have varied from
country to country, as have the theories underpinning the implementation
process. These techniques and practices have come to be known as new
public management. Larbi (1998) identifies the bases for the
implementation of new public management as:

--economic and fiscal pressures on governments;

--public attitudes and increasing criticisms (especially by
public-choice theorists) of the ineffectiveness and inefficiencies of
delivering public services;

--the resurgence of new right politics that were pro-market and
pro-private sector;

--the proliferation of management ideas generated, packaged and
marketed by international management consultants, who often act as
advisers on reforms to governments around the world;

--donor advocacy and lending conditions of international financial
institutions especially in developing countries;

--the spread of global markets, especially those related to
financial integration and liberalization; and

--the use and growth of information technology.

While Larbi's (1998) assertions may be true in many instances,
the same cannot be said for the situation of the Ghanaian government
when the GCGP was launched. The pressure on the new government to
deliver was of a different form. The administration in Ghana had assumed
office on a high wave of public support, even in the face of the need
for difficult economic decisions. The support was evident in the manner
in which members of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA) reduced
prices of goods as a show of support for the government. There was an
internal need to deliver in order to show that the country could be
developed or changed on the basis of effective policy implementation.
The support from CIDA was not predicated on any special conditions
either.

The project could be said to fit into the new public management in
the sense that it sought to reinvigorate the policy process and achieve
higher and evidence-based outcomes for the achievement of desired
effects. To the extent that training, re-training, sharing of
experiences and working in concert were part of the process, there were
elements of new public management to be seen.

The effect and impact of implementing a new policy management
system such as the GCGP, however, needs to be posited within the
political setting of the time. Without political support and an
environment that supports the development of policy through consensus
building and problem solving, it would not have been possible to achieve
any results. To the extent that the project improved the policy process,
it can be said to have met Deming's (1982) tenets on quality
management even though the key lead agencies were not manufacturing
concerns.

Michael Barber's (2007: 20-27) view that, for public-sector
reform to be effective, three key paradigms of command and control,
devolution and transparency, and quasi markets must be in place. He
argues that the demand for better public goods and services and exposure
to international comparisons and competition pressure governments and
make it imperative to have the required systems and infrastructure as
well as human capital for survival of national economies.

As in the case of Deming, these three paradigms were not all in
place nor was the approach to the development and implementation of the
GCGP comparable to what Barber describes. Command and control was not
completely relative, as the project sought to assist the president to
deliver on the principal areas of his administration. The policy process
itself recognized that the bottom-up approach was also required and made
extensive use of analysis and likely outcomes to refine the process and
to meet the needs of the populace.

The current policy demands facing Ghana require continued
strengthening of the policy management and decision-making processes.
Since the project was launched, it has become clear that with strong
political will and

commitment, the system being advocated can transform Ghana's
socioeconomic position consolidate democracy, and bring about sustained
development and good governance.

In order for the reforms to become deeply embedded, the executive
and political leaders must work closely with the bureaucracy to
implement the products and their recommendations assiduously. Such
collaboration will ensure that the products do not merely sit on shelves
and gather dust, and that the gains that have been made so far in
enhancing Ghana's policy process and decision-making system are
consolidated. To this end, successive governments need to be made aware
of the benefits of the project and its recommendations through
appropriate awareness generation, briefing notes and transfer of
knowledge via orientation programs. These could all be mainstreamed into
the transition-planning process which this project has so vividly
espoused. Clearly, a set of tools has been made available to the
political leadership and bureaucrats to use to ensure that there is no
lacuna in the institutional memory required to facilitate a smooth
transition from one government to another.

In order to sustain the success achieved, support is required from
the Presidency and cabinet which together constitute the highest
executive decision-making body in the country. Additionally, civil
servants have to play their part by offering commitment at the top, and
this must be complemented by the development of capacity at the
appropriate levels of the administrative machinery.

A series of inter-related strategies has been adopted to ensure
that there is continuity and consolidation of the project's ideals
and objectives. First, the cabinet secretary and head of the civil
service have worked extremely well with chief directors, the overall
heads of the ministries, to develop a system that mirrors the workings
of cabinet sub-committees through the establishment of the chief
directors' committees. These committees meet to discuss cabinet
memoranda early in the developmental stages, thus ensuring that all
salient issues relating to the wider sector are taken into account when
preparing a memorandum prior to submission to cabinet. Directors of
Policy Planning Units of ministries and civil service policy analysts
have also been constituted into teams to develop a variety of sample
cabinet memoranda as examples of best practice and guides for the
development of memoranda within the civil service.

Moreover, outcomes from the human resource development component of
the project are being internalized and mainstreamed into the capacity
building programs of the OHCS. Currently, there is ongoing training for
several civil service trainers by external consultants (both foreign and
local experts). The aim of this training of trainers is to ensure that
Ghanaian civil servants are well equipped to take over from the external
consultants who have played the lead roles in designing and executing
the capacity building programs relating to policy analysis, options
development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies. As
part of the human resource development process, the project is
supporting the OHCS to develop its training centre into a regional hub
for the training of civil servants, particularly in the West African
sub-region.

This effort holds promise because consultants who led the central
governance process are already in other countries such as Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Malawi to help with the implementation of civil service
reforms based on the model utilized in Ghana. The regional hub concept
may also be successful because, as the first Sub-Saharan country to gain
independence from colonial rule, Ghana and its civil servants had a
unique and earlier opportunity to receive first-class tutelage under the
auspices of many advanced Commonwealth countries. As a result, there are
many world-class Ghanaian public/civil servants who have made a name for
themselves and Ghana while practising abroad, and these
"ambassadors" have had the opportunity to build the civil
services of many developing countries. Ghanaians therefore enjoy the
goodwill of many emerging nations and command high levels of respect in
these countries. It is not surprising that the first Sub-Saharan African
to head the United Nations (the world's most renowned international
civil/ public service organization) was a Ghanaian. All these factors
point to a potentially successful regional centre (e.g., through a
collaboration between Ghana Institute of Management & Public
Administration and the Civil Service Training Centre), and Ghana would
do well to establish such an outfit with world-class facilities to serve
as a centre of excellence in Africa.

References

Antwi, K.B., F. Analoui, and Nana-Agyekum, D. 2008. "Public
sector reform in Sub-Saharan Africa: what can be learnt from the civil
service performance improvement programme in Ghana?" Public
Administration and Development 28: 253-264.

Kwaku Appiah-Adu is professor of Strategy, Regent University
Business School, City Campus, Accra, Ghana, and Chairman, Centre for
Advanced Strategic Analysis. Samuel Aning is fellow, Centre for Advanced
Strategic Analysis, and senior lecturer, Contemporary Issues, Methodist
University College, Ghana. The authors wish to thank the Journal's
anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of
this manuscript. Ghana's Central Governance Reforms project was
managed jointly by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and
the Government of Ghana, with funding from CIDA.